Announcing the poll results

A month ago I announced a poll regarding recent changes in the blog. There were different questions about different aspects of the articles I publish.
It is time now to get the results published.

Special non-blog post has been distributed

A week ago I announced a unusual e-mail which I was going to send to all my e-mail subscribers.
I have done this today.
So, please check your inbox.
If you see this message, but not the "special edition", then please write to me with a request to re-send. I know e-mail system is not reliable.

Ubuntu 12.04: A Stairway To Heaven?

Many of Linux users waited for that day, the 26th of April 2012. The day when Canonical released their Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin. The day when Unity became the only available desktop environment for the current long-term support version of Ubuntu.

The day has come.

Let's see what it brought.

Canonical stuck to the classical ISO image size this time: only 700 Mb, which is just fine to be burnt onto CD.

As usual, there are several options available, either in terms of the system (32- and 64 bit, desktop and server, text-only and graphical installation), or in terms of downloading options (direct download from a mirror or using a torrent). I chose 32-bit desktop version and used torrent this time.

Downloading of ISO image from the torrent was not a big problem. Initial downloading speed was low, but I guess that was an issue of the last mile, i.e. my connection to the provider. Soon that problem was resolved, and I got my own ISO image of the Ubuntu 12.04 operating system.

This time the image was burnt onto the CD-R disk, because I was fulfilling orders which came via my eBay site and via Buy Linux CDs page. I usually quickly test each CD for the ability to boot and to run few programs. That's why I decided to use one of those CDs to get my own picture of Ubuntu 12.04.

So, CD is in the drive of my Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo Pi 1505 laptop. Reboot. Choose to boot from optical drive. Let's go!

SliTaz 4.0: light and stable

When I first started this blog, I tended to write mostly about pocket-size distributions. SLAX and Puppy Linux were my first ones. And I still love them.

Even though I've branched into more heavyweight distributions since that time, pocket-size small Linux distributions are still my favourites. I like trying them out, and then writing about them for you, my readers.

SliTaz is one of those small-size distributions. I reviewed SliTaz 3.0 earlier. It unexpectedly declined to work on my relatively old laptop Compaq C300 at that time, but worked on a newer Toshiba L500-19X. It was more than a year ago. Much has changed since then. First, I no longer use my Compaq laptop, and Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo Pi 1505 became my main guinea pig. Second, and this is more important, a new version of SliTaz was released.

So, SliTaz 4.0 was released in stable version on the 10th of April 2012.

The ISO image grew in size a little bit since last time, but remained absolutely tiny - only 35 Mb. It means that you can download and burn it to your disk in no time. In my case, I burnt the ISO image onto a DVD-RW disk. The Buy Linux CDs site does not offer SliTaz in the list, but you can request one using the contact form, if you want.

So, the disk is ready and inserted into the optical drive of my Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo Pi 1505 laptop. Reboot. Choose to boot from DVD. Let’s go!

Devil Live twins of OpenBSD: the project is kicking

Some time ago I wrote a blog post about twin brothers in the world of Open Source. They are not Linux-related, but rather BSD-based operating systems: LiveCD OpenBSD and LiveUSB OpenBSD.

If you re-read those posts, you may notice that I was not happy with those operating systems at all. They were not working more often than they were working.

Since that time, I talked to the author of the project, Girish, several times. He let me know recently that the project has an updated release, published on the 10th of April 2012. I must admit that it was not the only release since my first review of LiveCD/LiveUSB OpenBSD. But the one(s) you probably missed were not worth reviewing, from my point of view.

Now, let's check what has changed recently.

As it was before, there are 3 versions of the operating system available for downloading: Full, MiniX and Minimal. I chose the Full version. It is about 1.7 Gb in archive file form. The file is hosted on Sourceforge network, so you are likely to get good downloading speed. Once the file is downloaded, you need to use an archiver to get the ISO image out of the archive. Not a big deal, to be sure.

Even though the project officially bears the title "LiveCD OpenBSD", this is not the LiveCD in normal terms, in the form we are used to seeing it. Yes, you still need a CD (or a DVD for the full version). Once the disk is burnt, you need to boot from it and then... you still need to create a LiveUSB with the actual system! Yes, you can't use the LiveCD for work. It is only a step to create a LiveUSB. I think that this is not useful for popularisation of the distribution, and this is one of the areas which the developer might well look into.
Update: the developer updated me that he's looking into improvement in this area.

The process of installation itself is simple and is fully described on the screen which is presented by the installer CD.

So, using this unusual way, the LiveUSB was created for me. Reboot. Let's go!

Something unusual is coming!

You may have noticed that I was not writing much reviews of Linux distributions in the recent past.

The reason for this is that I was away for holidays.

Of course, new reviews are coming. The next one is scheduled to be published in a couple of days.

In the meantime, I’d like to excuse a little bit more. I am preparing an absolutely unique post. I’ve never done this before, and this is unlikely I’ll do it in the future.

To be precise, this won’t be a blog post. Rather, this will be an e-mail, which I will send to all my e-mail subscribers. This e-mail will not be about Linux, but still about our favourite Tux.

Puzzled? Interested? Intrigued? Baffled?

Don’t waste your time – subscribe to this blog right now. The subscription form is on your right, or just under this text. The e-mail will be sent in a week’s time, and only to those who will be in verified subscribers’ list on the 27th of April 2012.

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Артем Зорин о Zorin OS - воротах в мир Linux для пользователей Windows

Чаще всего имя бренда – это что-то абстрактное. General Electric, FIAT, Airbus, Pepsico, RedHat – названия всех этих компаний не имеют ничего общего с именами их основателей. Тем не менее, иногда имя человека становится именем бренда. Разрешите мне представить человека, чье имя стало брендом, по крайней мере, в мире Линукса: Артем Зорин.

Посколько и я, и Артем - русские, проживающие за границей, это интервью доступно на двух языках: русском и английском.
English version of the interview with Artyom Zorin.

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DarkDuck: Привет, Артем. Я думаю, что твоя фамилия более широко известна, чем ты сам, потому что ее носит популярный дистрибутив Линукса. Расскажи, пожалуйста, немного о себе.

Artyom Zorin: Меня зовут Артем Зорин. Я – студент из Дублина, Ирландия. Мои родители – русские, переехавшие из Украины в Ирландию много лет назад. Именно поэтому мое имя не похоже на обычные ирландские имена. Я начал экспериментировать и работать с Линуксом в 2008 году, и это привело меня к разработке операционной системы Zorin OS, над которой мы работаем совместно с моим братом Кириллом.